Reds InsiderFrom news of the day to news of the weird, John Fay provides a glimpse of what it’s like to cover the Cincinnati Reds

John Fay has been the Reds beat writer for the Enquirer since 2001. Prior to that, he served in a variety of roles for the Enquirer: backup Reds writer, UC beat writer, backup Bengals writer and as a general assignment reporter. He is a Cincinnati native and a graduate of Elder High School and the University of Dayton.

Thursday, April 12, 2007

Narron on Encarnacion

Jerry Narron was fairly impassioned when talking about why he pulled Edwin Encarnacion from Wednesday's 3-2 Reds win over the Diamondbacks. Encarnacion did not run on a popout in the first inning. Here's what Narron said:

“You know something, I was not watching Eddie. I was watching the ball. I saw Eddie come in here with his bat. I came down here (to the clubhouse) and looked at it (on video). He did not run.

“Eddie told me he did not see the ball. You've still got to run. I don’t care if we lose every game, we’re not going to play guys who don’t hustle. Simple as that. I told them from Day 1: 'We’ll pinch-hit pitchers. We’ll play pitchers. If you cannot hustle, you cannot play. Simple as that.'

“Eddie will be back in there on Friday. If they don’t run balls out, they’re not going to play. I don’t care if we lose every game we’re going to hustle while we’re doing it.”

“I love him. I think he’s going to be a great player. He messed up. But doggone it, you can't be messing up in this game. If you don’t know where the ball is, you run until you know where it is.

“The one thing he’s never done here is dog it. It was probably an honest mistake. But it was a mistake."

Encarnacion said he understood why Narron did what he did.

"You have to play hard all the time. That's how we have to play," Encarnacion said.

Narron's move should serve notice to everyone on the club.

Narron also said Josh Hamilton - 2-for-4 with a home run, a double and two runs scored Wednesday - will play somewhere Friday against the Cubs

“Josh has got a good chance of playing somewhere," Narron said. "He might catch. I don’t know.”

Lost in the EE incident and the continued great story of Hamilton was a very good start by Matt Belisle. After a shaky first inning he cruised along the rest of his 6 innings. Hamilton so far has been been truly amazing! Clutch PH by Valentin and with Ross struggling do we see a platoon with Valentin & Ross?

Um...did you see the other game when Junior scored from third? Was he "dogging" it then? Yeah, he hasn't always hustled, but come on man give the guy some credit. I know nobody in this town wants to do that, but I think Junior is playing ok so far. He'll get better as the season goes on. He finally has people around him that can actually produce.

If I hear one more person get on Griffey for stupid reasons Im going to vomit. How can cincinnati be the most knowledgeable baseball city in one sense yet continue to show our ignorance in another. The Griffey comment aside, benching EE sends a solid message. Belise looked great--can he keep it going all season? Meanwhile, why isnt doesnt Narron make Hamilton to starting CF (at least until he slumps) and use Freel as utility? I loved Freel as much as the next guy, but anyone out there who really thinks he should be starting every day raise your hand. My hands are certainly down.

With David Ross struggling as bad as he is at the plate, how much longer do they continue to give him the starting nod before giving Valentin or Moeller a crack at it? I know they like Valentin coming off the bench (and after his performance last night and in the past, justifibly so), but Ross literally has what, 1 hit this season? If Narron's going to bench EE for not running out a fly ball, then isn't it about time to do the same for Ross not even hitting the ball?

I agree with the hustle part, he should have been benched, but have the same rule for everyone. Watch the tape on #3 from the game before where he stands in the batters box assuming that he had a homerun. It turned out to be a long off the wall “single”. If Narron is true to what he says, #3 should have been yanked of the base path. "Narron!" That's a quick way to divide a baseball team and fans that support you. BE CONSISTANT!

Griff's earned his stripes. Edwin's still learning. Put yourself in Narron's shoes. Griffey's one of the greatest ballplayers of all time. In the Big Red Machine days, Sparky even said Rose, Bench, Morgan and the other studs had a different set of rules than the other players.

Narron needs to rest both Freel and Griffey at least once a week to ensure they can make it the entire season. Hamilton will get his AB's. The best news is the long term outlook of an outfield of Dunn, Bruce & Hamilton.......who can stay together for 10 years....Beslisle in solid and another fixture for the future in a rotation that is looking good for the next 5 years. I hope this optimism is blinded by my "red" colored glasses

Griffey runs when he needs to. Notice that he doesn't dog it all the time. He plays hard in the field. The guy tagged on a popup to 2nd base, and you're saying he dogs it? Learn a bit about baseball. There is no reason for someone with his importance to the lineup to risk an injury by sprinting to first on a routine ground ball to an infielder. 99 out of 100 times, the infielder makes a clean play. Say Jr. sprinted every one of those 100 times.....is there less than a 1% chance that he would be injured? No. It isn't worth it. Jr. hustles when he needs to. He's a smart player --- Edwin isn't. Edwin can't afford to dog it. He doesn't understand the game yet - he's incompetent, and has no room for error.

The post at 11:57 is right on. If Griffey goes all out all the time, he will get hurt again. We need to fight the right battles and Griffey giving 110% on grounders and balls down the line is not a good thing to do if you want his bat in the lineup. Which we should. I believe that the higher ups have told Griffey to stay away from walls, sprinting and Freel. Stay healthy and keep your bat in the lineup. That is why RF is the right place for him. Phillips and Freel will cover extra ground and we'll be fine.

EE needs to know he's young and has to hustle on everything. Being benched will only make him a stronger player.

I understand not wanting Griffey to run out grounders that are routine, but when they are plays that clearly affect the game he needs to hustle. The other day he hit a ball off the left field wall and got a single because he watched the ball, he easily could have cruised into second without a dead sprint, that's just lazy. Same thing happened with Dunn about a week ago, he hit a ball off the wall and got a single. Sometimes if you hit the ball extremly hard this happens, but that was not the case, it was him simply watching the ball and not running at all. This should not be tolerated. How can you tell Edwin to not be lazy when you let the "leaders" get away with this. There is a big difference between Girffey playing cautiously and him simply being lazy.

* Our online blogs currently are hosted and operated by a third party, namely, Blogger.com. You are now leaving the Cincinnati.Com website and will be linked to Blogger.com's registration page. The Blogger.com site and its associated services are not controlled by Cincinnati.Com and different terms of use and privacy policy will apply to your use of the Blogger.com site and services.

By proceeding and/or registering with Blogger.com you agree and understand that Cincinnati.Com is not responsible for the Blogger.com site you are about to access or for any service you may use while on the Blogger.com site.
<< Home